Leeds Rhinos Reserves 50 Castleford Tigers Reserves 20

By Guy Harvey

Leeds were quick off the mark, Alfie Johnson scoring on seven minutes to give the Rhinos an early lead. Jack Sinfield and Fergus McCormack combined well to spread the ball wide, finding Johnson with an easy throw into the right corner. This started an attack by the Rhinos, with Sinfield turning from provider to finisher, this time on the left wing, after charging at the Tigers’ defensive line, dropping the fake pass before adding a left-foot step , creating a large enough space in front for him. squeeze threw and scored the try to which he added the extra and pushed the score to 10-0 with just ten minutes on the clock.

Moments later, Leeds were attacking the Castleford line again, this time Sinfield running to the line to find the second poacher, forward Ben Littlewood, running a line against the play and finding him with a short pass. The Tiger defense could do nothing to stop Littlewood’s charge and he crashed near the post taking several Castleford defenders with him. The Rhinos were complete at this point and scored again a few minutes later with Sinfield shooting high at the last tackle to the right edge and winger Alfie Johnson leaping highest to take the ball and score his second try of the night to give hosts a chance. 22 point advantage in as many minutes.

Both teams then shared possession but were unable to complete their sets due to errors and penalties, but on 30 minutes, winger Johnson completed his hat trick, scoring perhaps one of the easiest tries of his career because of the huge overlap created by the attackers. in the middle, allowing Johnson to dive into the corner. With just a few minutes left in the game, the away team hit back when winger Daniel Sarbah screamed for the ball on the blindside and got his wish when the ball came to him and he collected in the corner, leaving the score at 28 at the break. -4

Leeds started the second half in similar fashion to the first, with Jack Sinfield crossing for his second of the night in a carbon copy of the first half test, dropping the dummy before stepping off his left foot, creating space in front of him to mark the attempt. . Moments later, Sinfield completed his own hat trick thanks to a great break from young hooker Joe Diskin who ran in from false half, finding Sinfield in support crossing to score the third and with the conversion pushing the score at 44-4.

Leeds returned to full throttle and scored minutes later with Alfie Johnson scoring his fourth of the night with a stunning run from thirty yards to score near the post and with Sinfield equally well rested Shane Tuohey took the conversion. The final twenty minutes saw the home side take their foot off the pedal and allow Castleford to score, first Luis Johnson crossed down the left flank, seeing off a tiring defense to take advantage and score. Alfie Dean then took the opportunity to score again down the left flank after their midfield created an overlap past the visitors. But the visitors didn’t go down easily and still managed to score again after a well-worked move created space on Leeds’ left wing for full-back Fletcher Rooney to cut through and score, leaving the score at 50- 20.

Leeds Rhino Reserves

• Shane Tuohey
• Joshua Gillespie
• Harry Taylor
• Charlie Venables
• Alfie Johnson
• Fergus McCormack
• Jack Sinfield
• Leo Aliyu
• Mason Corbett
• Toby Warren
• Harrison Gilmore
• Ben Littlewood
• Ashton Robinson
• Joe Diskin
• Tyler Stephenson
• Freddie Brennan-Jones
• Bobby Hartley
• Declan White

Castleford Tiger Reserves

• Fletcher Rooney
• Jacob Hall
• Allie Dean
• Joshua Hudson
• Daniel Sarbah
• Jaiden Tang
• Jensen Windley
• Samuel Kibula
• Finley Yeaman
• Daniel Hindmarsh-Takyi
• Luis Johnson
• Samuel Darley
• Liam Carr
• Oliver Burton
• Akin Matvejev
• Woody Walker
• Alfie Hawkhead